Oh Christmas Tree wonky Christmas Tree

My husband, Huffle, has THE most rumbly tummy in the WORLD. Before he went to bed he stupidly (I say stupidly because as one gets older it seems one cannot digest certain foods as easily as one could when one was younger) ate an Eccles Cake (Puff Pastry). This caused havoc with his stomach ALL through the night resulting in zero sleep for him and a considerable loss of sleep for me. Today I have felt drugged I am THAT tired.

The boys went to school after watching the final of I'm a Celebrity which they thought was funny. I went into the loft and started the preparations for Moo's arrival (Wednesday early evening). I swept, swiffed, mopped and dusted. I was about to make her bed when I thought I would send her a message first to ask what kind of sheets she fancied, cotton or flannel? It's not as cold as it usually is so I thought she might like a choice. As of yet she hasn't answered me so I am not making the bed until she does (maybe someone will read this and tell her to let me know ha ha!).

Mid morning I went out for a walk with ClownRose and BabyF. We wandered around the Hamlet for just over an hour. We chatted and walked and found out what our kids were saying to each other. It's very funny. Smallest and BabyMo are so cute together. He gave her a Christmas card today which said "hope you get all the presents you wish for". She gave him a note back on the home time bus practically saying (her writing is unreadable as she is only four) that he was responsible for getting her any toys she wished for as that is what he wrote in her card. Oh dear. To be fair, he did get a Christmas bag and put in a puzzle, two books and a rock that he no longer wanted. He is so sweet.

I made some pastry in preparation for dinner and Huffle and I had lunch before I went out to the forest and walked with NoCustard and K her son. We had a lovely walk for over an hour.

At home I made a cheese and onion pie for Small and I (the other two had Beef and Guiness Pie from the butchers yesterday). With the leftover pastry I made some mini mince pies. The boys came home, did homework, chores, played on the Wii and then we had dinner.

This evening we all went to the Christmas Treet Lighting in the Hamlet. We were asked to arrive at 6:30/6:45 but we are not sure why as nothing happened until way past 7pm. The turnout wasn't great considering it wasn't too cold. The boys went as part of the Scouts and Cubs and sang to us and handed out their crafts they made last week (candy cane reindeer). The tree lights were lit on the wonky big Christmas Tree and we had hot chocolate and biscuits and we meandered round chatting to various people.

 

 

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Fishing for Pianos

A bad nights sleep again. Huffle had a rumble grumbly gurgling tummy which woke me at 4am and kept us both awake for at least an hour.

After breakfast I took Small to football and watched his development session. He was a bit frustrated today with one of the coaches (one that he normally likes) as he said a few things he wasn't happy about. He told him he should bring a ball with him and that he should tell his parents to buy him one for Christmas. (The club are supposed to, and do, provide balls for them to practice with at the start of each session). Also he told him he wasn't passing to the goalie which was absolute rubbish as each time they pass to the goalie they have to become the goalie themselves and Small was in goal for the majority of the game. Little things like that annoy me greatly so I can completely understand why it would frustrate Small.

Sneaking a look through the door

We were late finishing so had to rush home where our lunch was already set out for us. Small had the quickest shower in history, we ate and then we travelled to the Piano Teachers house for the boys piano recitals.

I asked for a banana sandwich and sent me this photo while I was at the football. I laughed so much everyone was looking at me.

There were eight kids, countless parents and siblings and lots of tea and homemade delights. We shuffled into our seats around the piano and sat down to watch all eight play two songs each. One Christmas tune and one other. They all did exceptionally well though I really think, completely unbiased, that ours were the best. At home we have a keyboard so for them to play on an old piano was exceptional. Afterwards we all had a cup of tea and a try of the teachers cookies. Very nice. We chatted with the other parents and eventually left to have a walk around the town and by the lake.

We visited the over priced Christmas shop, the butchers where we purchased a couple of meat pies and some good ol' English bangers. I asked the girl in there "I realise this is a butchers but do you sell any vegetarian pies?" She laughed at me! We visited the bakery and found Eccles Cakes and because Smallest needed the loo, we popped into the library where they were having a Gingerbread House exhibition. It was really good and there was some excellent work done. We marvelled at how one house had individual bricks iced together. Now we know how difficult that would be to keep upright.

We are not sure if there was a fishing competition but we were amused at the line of fisher people

Get that allergic rabbit away from me and then we'll chose a cake

On the way home, the sun looked like a huge white moon which then turned into a beautiful orange globe as it was deciding to set amongst the fog.

We decided to go out for dinner be ended up in a lovely place we have been to before. A nice place that Huffle said he chose because the boys did so well (he said if they had done badly, we would have gone to MacDonalds, but we know we wouldn't because it is not a place we have ever been to with them).

My dinner (BL) was Fillet of Rainbow Trout on a bed of lentils with veg and pine nuts. Yum yum PARP

The fog got worse and much thicker and we struggled to see the road or anything. Though we did manage to catch a glimpse of the Christmas Lights in the Hamlet. We were thinking (as a joke) to spend our Swear Jar money (of course there isn't that much in there!!) on an Elf Light (for those not in the know this is a light projection system that displays hundreds of lights onto your house) however! It seems everyone has them now so we have decided not to follow suit. Normally we would have scoured New Parks for such delights as can now be found just up the road here. Perfect.

At home the boys played Wii and table tennis and I did some jigsaw before we sat down to watch the final of I'm a Celebrity. We are very pleased with the winner.

 

 

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Camera Sickness

This morning, the rest of my family got up early to watch the Stoke game on TV. I gave them strict instructions not to shout or make too much noise as I was looking forward to a nice lie-in. There was no shouting and the TV wasn't too loud but they made that much noise making their breakfast that it kept me awake and I ended up getting up anyway. Stoke won so they were happy. Leicester also won and are back at the top wahooooo.

The boys all left just after 9am to go to Smallest's football game. Small was the camera man for the game and videoed the whole game on an old video camera that belonged to the coach. For this he was given Messi tee-shirt. Smallest's team had a tough game but ended up drawing 6-6 eventually, being constantly down throughout the game. Unfortunately Small became ill on the way home and later in the day which we think resulted from the filming on the unfocusable camera. We are wondering if it is some kind of motion sickness or vertigo kind of thing. He looks really poorly in the eyes. More unfortunately it meant he had to miss a party he was invited to today which he really wanted to go to. Instead he went to bed for part of the afternoon and lay on the sofa for the rest of the day, emerging briefly to play a game of UPSET with us early evening.

I stayed in this morning and made Suffolk daughters birthday cake. She wanted a chocolate Monkey Cake and it all went swimmingly and she was very happy with it.

I finished the cake off just after lunchtime with the intention being to deliver the cake on the way to the party but Suffolk came and picked it up later and I popped out to get chips for a mid afternoon feast. Small and Huffle watched TV while Smallest and I played Carcasonne and Table Tennis.

The weather has been quite warm today and while I was out getting Chips, I bumped into the Santa Parade. The only reason we decided against the parades this year was because they are always so cold standing around. It would have been a nice one this year. Oh well, with Small not being well, we wouldn't have gone anyway.

Today it seems that lots of people are putting their Christmas Trees up and I have had a couple of messages and photos saying that my little Christmas Korknisse that I made for them have made an apparance. Awwww that's nice to see.

The kids went to bed. Not sure either of them is quit right. My throat is hurting and I had no spice today - oh oh! Small and I ate Aloe Jelly just in case.

 

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Dusty Bums

This morning I took Smallest for an allergy test. We had an early appointment and had to drive through construction, work traffic and general slow cars and lorries. It wasn't a pleasant journey but Smallest kept me entertained by telling me things that were appearing on the GPS like ponds, forests and street names. We made it to our appointment with about 30 seconds to spare which wasn't bad considering we had to park and pay for our car parking and then find the correct floor.

DoctorAllergy greeted us and put us in a tiny broom cupboard (obviously it wasn't a cupboard but it was small enough) and sat Smallest on the bed and asked questions. He lay him down on his front and told him to hold a superman pose (arms over the head). Smallest thought this was funny. He then told him that he wouldn't stick him with needles but that it would feel like a cat was walking across his back (eeeek Huffle is allergic to cats, he wouldn't like that). He then took out a 30 pronged metal thing and pressed it into his back leaving 30 ish drops on his back in a nice pattern. He picked off excess droplets and left us alone for ten minutes with strict instructions not to scratch, sit up and rub at them. Smallest and I had an interesting conversation about sitting in cold jelly just to try and stop him thinking about the itching. After ten minutes we could clearly see what he was allergic to and DrAllergy said he would give me a printout, plus an instruction sheet and also a prescription for nasal spray and eye drops. He suggested we shut the windows at home and put the air con during his worst times which is not something I like doing as I love the fresh air and really don't like air conditioning unless it is really necessary. However, we will do whatever is necessary.

Superman pose. BL: after five minutes. BR: after ten minutes

Basically he is allergic to rabbits (that's a strange one), grass (non specific), tree pollen (non specific) and dust mites. Rabbits are not a problem, they are easy to avoid. Grass and tree pollen - I was very disappointed to hear this as we knew about the tree pollen already, what we really wanted to know was what tree pollen so we can try and avoid being out during those times when they are at their worst. He didn't seem to think we needed to know that and said just shut the windows and give him antihistamines. Like I say, I was a bit disappointed to not know more but he is available to us for a year should we need him further (ie we don't need to be referred to him again within a year - might be useful). Dust mites - we have to wash his bedding weekly in 50*+ water and high drying temperatures and limit the amount of soft toys (OMG he has many!!!!). I think if I just stop him and Small playing soft toy baseball and throwing them at each other and stuffing them under the bed, it might help a little. Smallest and I have come up with a plan to keep his room as dust free as we can.

I took him back to school, got his late slip and came home for a cup of tea and a FaceTime with Grandma before dashing out of the door again to have a look at my newly fired pottery. I was responsible for emailing our group to get us together so we could all see each other's pots and then we went for lunch. We chose a Thai place (partly because I am vegetarian and partly because Suffolk is on a weird Exclusion diet at the moment). I didn't like my meal because it was full of tofu. I don't eat meat and I don't eat meat substitute so after I picked it all out, there wasn't an awful lot left. Plus I ordered a Ginger Tea and it was really sweet. Oh well at least I tried.

I loved everyone else's pots much more than my own and once again I was disappointed with my glazing.

Cheese plate, yarn bowl, birds, yarn bowl with my knitting on - oh yes!

Square pot for?? With spoon? Brie dish, spoon rest, heat thing,

I made dinner, the boys came home and did a chore and played on the Wii. We had dinner early today due to the fact that Small and Huffle had to get to football by 6pm. They had a good session and picked up a few essentials on the way home.

Smallest and I cleaned his room, changed his bed and vacuumed and dusted. We also put away all soft toys except for his precious smelly and Pluto but not before we vacuumed them first. The only downside to all this cleaning is that I am allergic to dust and now my face is itching and because I had spice at lunchtime my throat is sore. Bloomin' allergies!

We sat and watched the end of Nanny McPhee and then Smallest went to bed and we read Harry Potter.

 

 

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Hong Kong Mail

It was very strange day weather wise. It was rainy, sunny, cloudy, rain and sunny, rainbowey, windy and it even snowed briefly. There's not a lot left really is there? Still I only went out in my canvas shoes and a fleece. No gloves, coat or boots for this girl.

The boys went to school, Huffle had yet more silly phone calls and emails but today no football game to watch while he listened to his silly phone calls. Poor Huffle.

I spent the morning finishing off a fingerless mitten and then undoing it all because it wasn't quite right. I also managed a load of washing so the morning wasn't a complete wash-out. I also emptied Moo's box that she leaves here and photographed everything in it so she knows what she doesn't need to bring and the sorted through all th Christmas presents I have bought and write a list. Now I know that I have bought too much stuff for Smallest, only have a couple of things left to get for Huffle and still need plenty for Moo and Small (thought there are a few things from the Internet to come yet). I hid it all from prying eyes.

Huffle and I had lunch briefly and then I went out for my foot appointment. I am still suffering with Plantar Fasciitis so we told which exercises I should be doing (which I do but not often enough). I was fitted for new orthotics and also bought a beautiful sock to wear in bed which will keep my foot flexed and prevent tears (rhymes with pears) when I attempt to walk in the morning. It's very sexy and far too expensive (hoping I can get some money back on the insurance).

On my way home I popped out the Post Office where I posted an envelope for Huffle and one for myself and then bought some International stamps. Here I learned that you pay tax on stamps if you take them away form the Post Office but if you use them in the Post Office, you pay no tax. Now that's interesting. I might just take my writing paper and pens in the post office and set myself up a little table and do all my writing in there. Ha, can you imagine. The post office man obviously felt sorry for me and wiped out the tax for me. He said not to tell anyone so I won't mention which Post Office it was, just in case).

Back home I started to make soup for dinner. The boys came home and did their homework, played maths games on the computer, chatted to me about their day and watched I'm a Celebrity from yesterday. Smallest told me that his teacher said not to get him anything for Christmas, maybe a card would be nice. Smallest said to him "it's a shame because I just made a fresh batch of Flapjacks, but if you don't want them". He then told the class 'oh and baked goods too'.

Tonight was one of those rare nights where we have nothing on so it was good to have a slow dinner and play with the boys at table tennis and MarioKart and then we settled down to watch I'm a celebrity.

 

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Moominwinky

Another foggy day, luckily I only drove to the other end of the Hamlet this morning to get to aerobics so didn't notice whether cars had their lights on or not. Much later in the evening I did drive out a lot further to take the kids to basketball............

Kids went to school, Huffle had a tiresome day fielding lots of emails and telephone calls from lots of muppets. I went to aerobics and worked hard and took back the Tuba before returning home.

I made a Banada Chocolate Loaf for three reasons, the bananas were past eating, it's a good snack for Small to take to school (Smallest doesn't like it) and I'm trying to cut out chocolate (chocolate chips do not count obviously). Huffle and I had lunch and watched last night's I'm a Celebrity - YAY Chris has gone, thank goodness. Now I know Lady C (she ain't no lady) has gone but they never mentioned it so I'm guessing that will be tonight's episode which we probably won't watch until tomorrow because we will be watching Apprentice. (It's so complicated).

This afternoon I knitted, prepared dinner, FaceTimed Moo to get help with my knitting, undid my knitting several times and that was about it really.

When the boys came home, they did homework, practiced piano quietly (ahhhhhh) and played on the Wii. After dinner I took them to basketball. Last week's session was cut short so the coach provided one extra session and invited Small and Smallest along which was nice. There were only five boys there but they had a really good time and the coach said he would be happy to see them there next year. It was extremely entertaining and very funny to watch today.

 

Today I found out one of my oldest friends is ill and it made me feel really sad that I was so far away. I know I can't do anything or be there and I so want to hug them let them know I love them. I feel like I haven't been a very good friend because I don't talk to them as much as I should but we have always had one those friendships where we know each other is there in times of need. I hope she knows how much she means to me and I am sure her positive attitude and determination will get her through it.

 

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Smokin' Pine Cones

The Advent Calendars were started today. Our House one had in it some sweets, a comedy eraser and a fact "Otto does smoke pine cones, that's a fact". Our other advent calendar was one Moo and I picked up last year after Christmas. It was an Elf one but Smallest and I were very disappointed to find that inside the first window was a sticker of a toy soldier and behind the sticker - nothing. We expected a picture of Elf or a quote from the film. Nothing. Pah!

Today the weather was foggy, drizzly and miserable. Why then, when the foggginess resembles pea soup and no one can see more than a cars length in front of them, do the drivers not put on their damn lights? Idiots! Oh I can't see that car in front of me until I almost crash into them. Doh, I wonder what I can do about that!?

Smallest has been complaining lately about his knee. He can't run on it. Huffle told him that football would be out until it was fixed and suddenly it's better. Now we are not sure if he is trying to copy his father, having an injury, trying to be a big boy or whether the thought of not playing football has made him pretend he doesn't have an injury. Either way, it's not good. I had a talk with him this morning about pretending (he assured me he wasn't) and the dangers of playing with an injury. What's worse, missing one game or missing them forever? He promised he would stop running at school if it hurt and rested it.

This morning I went off and did some errands. I forgot potatoes in my shop yesterday despit the fact I was supposed to be making fish cakes (main ingredient) last night. I am making Suffolks daughter birthday cake so I picked up ingredients for that plus some extra Christmas sweets for another project coming soon. I popped into the wool shop and got some help for something I am knitting, forgot to pick up stamps and got Small's Secret Santa present for school plus a couple of small Christmas presents.

Huffle and I had lunch together and finished watching Jekyll and Hyde (so weird - created by Charlie Higson, comedy genius from Fast Show and writer of several kids James Bond books that Small has read - clever man).

This afternoon I made Fish Cakes for dinner, sewed buttons on slippers I had made for the kids for Christmas and dried and sorted washing. We had our first Christmas card today and it was from our home County - awwwwwwww.

The boys came home, made hot chocolate, practised piano and tuba for much longer than I cared about. I know I should be very encouraging with the wonderful musical talent they are displaying but if I hear another Jingling around the bloody Christmas Tree..........!!!!

Smallest was trying to help set the table and knocked over 15 litres of milk (it was probably only a pint but it felt like litres and litres - don't ask me why I'm mixing up my measurements, I just am). It took the whole family at least half an hour, while the dinner was ruining, to clean up the mess. It seemed to get into every nook and crevice in the fridge, every bit of packaging, drawer and find its way half way across the kitchen.

Eventually dinner was eaten and then Smallest and Huffle realised they were late for football and skedaddled. Small and I watched a bit of TV, played Monopoloy Deal and did some jigsaw.

 

 

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